CU Athletics

Henderson: A final retrospective

In this photo taken on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, a sellout crowd watches the Nebraska marching band ahead of the NCAA college football game against Virginia Tech, in Lincoln, Neb. On Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009, Nebraska will celebrate an NCAA-record 300-game sellout streak at Memorial Stadium. (AP | Nati Harnik)

Ah, Nebraska, the land Mother Nature forgot and Colo- rado will soon forget.

Today marks the Buffaloes' last foray into Memorial Stadium, barring momentary insanity from athletic director Mike Bohn and his schedule-makers.

It also marks my last step into the state, the most God-forsaken piece of real estate this side of rural Algeria. However, I will always have memories from far too big a chunk of a 20-year period of travel.

From the Buffaloes' first win in Lincoln in 23 years in that magical 1990 season to Bo Pelini's magical carpet ride back into town, below are the memories of Nebraska that will remain with me forever.

The drive on I-80 from Omaha to Lincoln is not one of them.

1990: Colorado 27, Nebraska 12.

It's my first visit to the state, and I've never been so cold in my life. It's not only because I have just moved from Las Vegas.

A savage 25-mph wind combined with a freezing rain whips through the stadium, not to mention Colorado's offense.

Stymied for three quarters and clinging to national title hopes, the Buffs' Eric Bieniemy bulls for four touchdowns.

On another night more suited for Arctic hares, Buffs freshman quarterback Koy Detmer gets fed to a merciless defense that lays the foundation for Tom Osborne's first national title in 1994. Starting QB Kordell Stewart doesn't start because of an injury and plays sparingly.

1995: Lawrence Phillips.

After leading the Huskers to their 1994 title, he becomes a Heisman front-runner when he averages 11 yards a carry and scores six TDs his first two games.

He's then arrested on assault charges after his girlfriend, basketball player Kate McEwen, accuses him of beating and kicking her, pulling her down three flights of stairs by the hair and slamming her head into a wall.

Osborne suspends him for all of six games. Phillips returns for the last four, starts in the Fiesta Bowl and leads Nebraska to another title.

Osborne says booting him from the team would do more harm than good. Where is Phillips now? He's serving a 31-year sentence from 2009 for attacking his girlfriend and driving his car into three teens.

Osborne's win-at-all-costs approach was supported by Nebraskans like the woman I met in a LoDo bar who said McEwen deserved it for seeing another guy.

The rivalry.

Researching a 1994 story on the Colorado-Nebraska rivalry, I interview a Nebraska fan who once sat in Folsom Field feeling raindrops on her head. She touched her hair. It wasn't rain. It was urine.

A CU fan poured it on her from behind. Other Nebraska fans talk of renting cars at the border after seeing cars with Nebraska plates, including theirs, suffering some kind of damage.

2003: Kansas St. 38, Nebraska 9.

Frank Solich's last game in Lincoln, Nebraska loses to K-State at home for the first time since 1968. Coach Bill Snyder leaves in his starters until deep in the fourth quarter, and Pelini, then the Cornhuskers' defensive coordinator, refuses to shake his hand.

Solich is fired 14 days later after beating Colorado 31-22. Solich's record that year: 9-3.

Nov. 18, 2007: Bill Callahan's last press conference.

It's two weeks after Nebraska gives up 76 points to Kansas, and the former Oakland Raiders coach is no longer welcome at Barry's, Lincoln's popular pregame gathering joint, for two reasons. One, he's on his way to a 5-7 record, Nebraska's second losing mark in 46 years (he had the first in 2004). Second, he has no idea where Barry's is.

Aug. 8, 2009: Nebraska Fan Day.

I'm in the Memorial Stadium press box waiting for a player interview and I look down on the field. A string of humanity, longer than a migration of wildebeests, stretches 2 1/2 lengths of the football field to get the autograph of Pelini, hired to replace Callahan the year before.

(Below would be a memory that could top them all.)

Nov. 26, 2010: Colorado 24, Nebraska 21.

Interim coach Brian Cabral, a 21-year assistant and former Buffs player, leads Colorado to a third straight win, knocks the Huskers out of the Big 12 championship game and earns a bowl bid. Bohn interrupts the uproarious fight song by announcing Cabral is the new permanent head coach.

Mother Nature would definitely applaud.

Game of the day

Auburn at Alabama

The Iron Bowl returns to the forefront of the college football world on the biggest weekend of the year. This time it's more than state ripping rights on the line.

Auburn has a national title to win.

The 11-0 Tigers (7-0 in the Southeastern Conference) are second in the country and must knock off their hated rival — and defending national champion — on the road today to get there. Auburn is already confirmed for the SEC championship game against 18th-ranked South Carolina, but its regular-season finale could be tougher.

The Tigers come in boasting a tainted Heisman Trophy favorite in Cam Newton, who will see his share of ugly signs in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Having a father shop around a star quarterback for six-figure sums, as he has been accused of, tends to lift the spirit of archrivals' sick sarcasm.

However, be warned, Crimson Tide (9-2, 5-2). Alabama may be a 4 1/2-point favorite, but Newton ignored the controversy to run and pass all over Georgia in a 49-31 win in his last game. He's second nationally in pass efficiency (183.6) and ninth in rushing (117.9 yards per game).

He'll go against an Alabama defense that hasn't missed much of a beat despite two losses. It's second in pass-efficiency defense (96.0), third in scoring defense (12.8) and seventh in total defense (293.5).

Plus, defending Heisman winner Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson, healthy after missing the last two games, combine for 157.1 rushing yards per game.

Conceivably, Auburn could still make the BCS championship game if it loses a close one today and beats South Carolina for the automatic BCS berth.

However, top-ranked Oregon must lose, and the voters must keep a one-loss Auburn team over TCU and Boise State, both undefeated.

Rockies are on pace to lose 93 games this seasonThe Rockies lost three of four in St. Louis and are on pace to lose 93 games as they come home for a three-game series with Seattle before going back on the road again to face Washington.